Moving you on over to the XJ8 section. You will receive more hits.

But based on what you said it looks like you are thinking seriously long term, it will take your wife 16 years to hit 200,000

 

If my wife drove my Jaguar it wouldn't last long. I had an '85 XJ before my 2001 and I had it for 13 years of wonderful experiences. I never let the wife drive my car unless it is an emergency. I guess I'm sexist, but I know my car inside and out. The wife doesn't and doesn't care. I know to be careful with things that are known weak points and to replace things that are known issues. Wifey don't care. I would trust my wife fine with a Honda or a Toyota, or our Land Rover. Not so with Jag. Just sayin'

 

with good maintenance, non-abusive use, and a bit of luck, I would say that you could get 200,000 miles out of an XJ8, but not without a bit of a fight. It seems like the transmissions have problems around 100,000 usually, and there are many other issues such as the water pump and plastic chain tensioners (with a 2001 I think you may be beyond these issues). I have never seen an XJ8 with more than 170,000 miles on it, but I'm sure they are out there. If you are going for extreme mileage it might be better to go for a 1995-1997 XJ6, those seem to hit 200,000 without breaking a sweat.

 

My mechanic works on a '98 XJR that he says has 250k miles on it. 250k miles in Boston! Snow, ice, terrible roads and etc.

 

I picked up a 2001 XJ8 back in October. Wonderful car. I have a couple of the noted issues that seem to be common with the 01 - Bad solder points on the ABS module, and after a 2000 mile round trip excursion after Christmas, I'm looking at a timing chain job. Long story short, nothing I've come across has changed my mind about the car. As far as reliability goes, 130k and I'm having to to a timing chain job due to the original tensioners failing -most cars on the road today recommend timing chain service between 60 and 75k. I will confess however, I'd probably be a bit more peeved that I was having to perform service on a car I just bought, if I wasn't capable of doing the service myself - Service and parts can be a bit steep in comparison to others. I've got no reservations that with normal maintenance and proper care this car will have any issues surpassing 200k.

 

We had our 2001 XJ8 for 7 years now. It had little over 20m miles when we bought it. It now has almost 96m miles on it. That about 11m miles per year. My wife usually drives this Jaguar every day of the week. She loves it. I make sure it is always maintained properly.
Within the last 6 months we had 2 expensive repairs.

First the cam chain tensioners failed and we had to replace all the primary and secondary tensioners. We decided that it was a good idea also the replace all the cam chains and the water pump while the they were accessible.

Then 2 weeks later the transmission failed. We had to front drive disk replaced and some of the parts in the valve body.

We have a friend that is a skilled mechanic who did the work at a very reasonable hourly rate and had the transmission rebuilt by an authorized rebuilder. Total cost was $3,000. Our friend also did the tensioner job and the total cost was $2000.

We have not had any other major repairs that we paid for since we have owned this vehicle. I purchased a 3rd party extended warantee in 2005 because I wanted to make sure if the engine failed I would not have to pay the $10,000 for a replacement engine.

We did need to have the valve cover gaskets replaced in 2006 ($450 at the dealership was covered by our extended 3rd party warrantee). We had the fuel pump fail in 2008 ($535 at the dealership also covered by the 3rd party warrantee).

in 2007 the CD changer failed and was replaced ($255 paid by the 3rd party warrantee).

In 2005 it had cracked front arm bushings, the rear pinion seal was leaking and the Sun Roof link assembly was broken. All were replaced by the dealership and covered by Jaguar original warrantee.

I keep an Excel worksheet file for each car we own that has the repair and maintenance records. It includes all the information on the vehicle (dates, who did the work, what work was done, the cost of the work, also when the vehicle was purchased, the mileage, any extended warrantees, etc),

Here is a copy of the Excel file:

2001 Jaguar XJ8 sp.xls

In Summary We both love this Jaguar. We were really unhappy that the Jaguar dealerships we used for service did not let us know about the known tensioners and known transmission major repairs that we might experience. Had we known we would have paid the dealership to inspect both the tensioners and the transmission for these known problems. Also they would have been covered by our 3rd party warrantee.
Jaguar dealership service caused us to shell out a lot more money than we should have had to pay out.

Hope all this information helps you and others on the forum.
Jim Lombardi

 

My 2002 VDP just hit 75k. Noone has yet to mention suspension issues like ball joints and control arm bushings will need to be replaced eventually, but I also love my car to death and if you can find a independent mechanic the repairs are pretty typical price wise as to owning other vehicles imo..i own a jeep that has needed more repairs than my jag.

 

I love my 99 XJ8. I've owned twenty or so cars to date of which the Jag is my favorite driver. Having worked on the S-Type program I was able to interact with the engineers on the XJ8 program and to quote one of them, "The XJ8 is a special car and you will feel special when driving it".

While it's a special car and I do love driving it, I will say that they do require a certain dedication and a moderate amount of wrenching to keep them operating as desired.

Keeping one of these cars happy is just like keeping my wife happy. It's constant work.

 

I bought a 1998 Jag VDP in July. It had 34k original miles. I immediately had the tensioners changed out, (approx. $3k) and have oil changes since. I have driven >15 miles since then (heavily Los Angeles user) and I. LOVE. MY. CAR!

I think it makes a HUGE difference to have been able to buy the car outright in the beginning... I paid approx $9 plus my trade-in and honestly couldn't be happier.

Though I admit, I have been itching for an XK convertible for weekend driving... and have my eyes open...


Julie

 

Which proves that the V8 can be durable....but "durable" isn't the same as "reliable" and definately not the same "inexpensive" :-). One wonders what repairs and expenditures were needed to reach 250k miles?

Cheers
DD

 

I'm not a Jag V8/XJ8 expert but all the common failure areas are well documented. If you're proactive in addressing these problem areas (not cheap) and take a "TLC" attitude towards normal routine service there's no reason the car won't be as reliable/dependable as any other similar car. That is, you're not unusually likely to be stuck by the side of the road due to an unexpected breakdown or miss an important meeting because it won't start.

The same pretty much applies to durability. They can last a long time...but you'll spend money before hitting 200k miles.

In short, Jags still need love :-). I've owned three. I've never begrudged them a single dollar I've spent and they've never failed to repay in more than equal measure. I loved them and they loved me :-). I know this all sounds sorta corny but that's that kind of attitude you need. Truth is, they're not for everybody.

Remember, too, that used Jags are priced very low relative to cars offering similar style, luxury, performance, and road manners. As used cars go it's just about impossible to find more car for less money. Yeah, you'll probably have to dump some cash into the car along the way, but your initial buy-in was very low.

On a less subjective note......

If you're looking for a "drive it and forget it" car together with 200k mile durabilty I think you're looking at the wrong kind of car. Not the wrong brand, necessarily, but the wrong kind of car. High end luxury cars...you pick the brand....almost always have problems as they age and, no matter how you slice it, are expensive to repair. Broadly speaking not even the German and Japanese cars can lay claim to the rock solid reliabilty and durability records they were known for many years ago.

Enough mindless rambling :-)


Cheers
DD

 

I have a 2001 XJR with 67,000 miles on her. I bought the car about 5 years ago as a certified car from the dealer with 21,000 miles on her. I drive the car summer and winter in Minneapolis (with two sets of wheels and tires of course). Only issues I have had is the front seat heater broke, had to replace the instrument cluster (found out later most likely did not need the whole thing replaced), and just today I put in a newly fixed ABS module. I have a great, reasonably priced shop in town that mainly works on older and newer British cars and I am still very pleased with the car. Make sure anything you buy is well sorted, and you find a mechanic that knows how to work on the car at reasonable rates before you buy one. The dealer, like most dealers for higher end cars will make you a poorer person very quickly if you depend on them for service.

 

Hi Jim,

Would you mind sharing what company your 3rd party warranty was with?

Thanks
Blue

 

Hi xjblue8
I updated my repair & maintenance Excel file attachment in post #7 to bring up to date through yesterday.

Here is the Warrantee Company information:

Bayer Federal Credit Union - Purchased Extented Service Warrantee -
company is Mercury Insurance Co (Mercury Select Management Co).
Name of the Plan – Gold Coverage for New Cars

Premium Value GOLD Coverage 4yrs 85,000 miles $2250 – coverage started on 7/26/2005 our 2001 XJ8 that had 39600 miles.

The extended Warrantee expired when the odometer reached 85000 miles in mid July 2009 (almost 4 years after warrantee period started).

Our original Jaguar (new car) warrantee ended 8/30/2005 (XJ8 was put in service 8/30/2001).

We needed to purchase the extended warrantee before the Jaguar warrantee expired because it was one of the requirements of Bayer Federal Credit Union & Mercury Insurance Co.

We also had to join the Bayer Federal Credit Union to be able to apply for this extended warrantee.

They also had these other options:
5 yrs 100,000 miles $2720
5 yrs 75,000 miles $2140
4 yrs 100,000 miles $2575
4 yrs 75,000 miles $2065

They would not give us another policy when this policy expired since our car no longer qualified as a new car with original warrantee still in force.

Jim Lombardi

 

The XJ8 is as reliable as any 10 yr old luxury car can be.
With careful maintenance it can be trouble free.
At 142k mi my car has never let me down.

 

I thought the tranny A drum issues were sorted out in the 2001 XKR, is this correct? It has the mercedes tranny right?

 

Thanks for the info Jim!

Blue

 

00s have the Mercedes transmission as well, I don't know about pre-00 Euro XKRs though. 03 they switched to a 6sp unit from ZF on the XKR from the MB one.

I wouldn't call the A Drum issue sorted out because the R model(my knowledge is US, 00+ only, 96-99 Euro I don't know) never had the unit the XK8 had.

 

I saw that you are from the Minneapolis area. I just moved to the area, and need a referral for a good Jag mechanic. Would you be so kind as to point me to a good shop? Thanks!